Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Gedā-yı miḥnet-āmūzam beni aç eyleme yā Rāb
Sihām-ı fāḳa vü iflāsa āmāc eyleme yā Rāb
Kibār u aġniyāsı cümle muḥtācın nevālindir
Kerem eyle beni muḥtāca muḥtāc eyleme yā Rāb
Fāriġ edinse de yaz ṣabrın ṭumārına ismim
Yazarsañ daḫı ol defterden iḫrāc eyleme yā Rāb
Ten-i üryānımı taḳvā libāsıyla müzeyyen ḳıl
Rehīn-i minnet-i zerbeft ü dībāc eyleme yā Rāb
Basīrī gibi zelīl-i rif‘atin farḳımda kāfīdir
Serim derd-āşinā-yı efser-i tāc eyleme yā Rāb

In English

1. I am a beggar schooled in hardship; O Lord, do not leave me hungry; do not make me a target for the arrows of poverty and ruin.

2. The great and the rich of the world are all in need of your bounty; be generous, do not make me needy of the needy.

3. Write my name on the scroll of patience; once you have written it, O Lord, do not strike me from that register. (The meaning of the words "Fāriġ edinse de" at the start of the line is not clear; the printed form is very probably corrupt. The translation rests on the clear part of the couplet: the lover wishes to be written in the register of the patient and not to be erased from it.)

4. Adorn my naked body with the garment of piety; do not make me a hostage beholden to gold brocade and silk.

5. For a humble servant like Basîrî, this much loftiness upon my head is enough; O Lord, do not make my head one that knows the trouble of the crown and diadem. (The syntax of the first line is obscure; the translation takes as its basis the sense that the poet does not want the crown of sovereignty and its trouble.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün"; the source does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "eyleme yā Rab" (do not make, O Lord); the rhyme rests on the sound "-āc / -ac": aç, āmāc, muḥtāc, iḫrāc, dībāc, tāc. The Turkish word "aç" (hungry) joins with a short vowel a rhyme series made up of Persian and Arabic words. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the spelling "Basīrī". The spelling "Rāb" in the text has been left as in the edition.

This ghazal is not among the Turkish poems in Basîrî's divan manuscript. Ahmet Kartal gives it under the heading "Basîrî'nin Diğer Şiirleri" (Basîrî's other poems), from Cemal Kurnaz's book of 1999; Kurnaz's source is not stated in the article. The first line of the third couplet and the first line of the last couplet cannot be fully understood in their printed forms; these places are marked in the translation. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is from beginning to end a supplication addressed to God and is close in subject to the münacat (supplication). Each couplet closes with a plea ending "eyleme yā Rab", "do not, O Lord". The poet does not ask God for wealth; on the contrary, he asks to be spared the heaviest consequences of poverty, hunger and dependence on people, but also not to become attached to worldly goods such as fine clothes and a crown. This measured attitude is the main thought of the ghazal.

In the first couplet poverty and ruin are likened to arrows (sihām) aimed at the lover; the word "āmāc" is the target aimed at in archery. In the second couplet the word "muḥtāc" (needy) occurs three times: even the great and the rich of the world are in need of God's bounty, so the poet does not want to be "needy of the needy". This expression, built on the repetition of the word, conveys that holding out one's hand to people is a heavier abasement than holding it out to God. In the third couplet scroll, register and writing form a congruence of images (tenasüp); the poet asks that his name be written in the register of the patient and not erased from it.

In the fourth couplet the contrast between nakedness and clothing takes on a spiritual meaning. The poet wishes to cover his body with the garment of piety; this phrase, which recalls the Qur'anic expression "the garment of piety", is set against gold brocade and silk. To be beholden to others for costly clothes is, in the poet's eyes, a kind of bondage. In the last couplet crown and diadem, the emblems of sovereignty, are seen as a trouble. Another ghazal published by Kurnaz also says that from the king to the dervish no one is at ease on the throne of the world; the two ghazals share the same thought.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Books

  • Ahmet Kartal, "Basîrî ve Türkçe Şiirleri", İlmî Araştırmalar: Dil, Edebiyat, Tarih İncelemeleri 10 (2000), pp. 77-96, "Basîrî'nin Diğer Şiirleri", ghazal 3: p. 96 (note 23: Kurnaz 1999, p. 142), https://acikerisim.fsm.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11352/1033.
  • Cemal Kurnaz, Türkiye-Orta Asya Edebî İlişkileri, Ankara: Akçağ Yayınları, 1999, p. 142 (from Kartal 2000's quotation; the book itself was not seen).

Online sources